Gold Medal Plants of 2021

December 22nd, 2020

   One of the best resources for making wise plant picks in Pennsylvania gardens is the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Gold Medal Plant Program.

Redbud ‘Appalachian Red’ is one of seven Gold Medal award-winning plants of 2021.

   Each year, a panel of regional plant experts gets together to hash out what are some of the best trees, shrubs, evergreens, and perennial flowers that deserve greater use in our landscapes.

   The criteria is that the plants have to be hardy in Zones 5 to 7, have to be solid all-around performers, should be attractive in more than one season, and preferably be resistant to deer browsing but beneficial ecologically.

   The deciding factor is that they’re under-used and/or under-known.

   The PHS Gold Medal panel has been making picks since 1979, originally starting with just woody plants but expanding into perennials six years ago.

   Plants are nominated from submissions by home gardeners, garden designers, horticulturists, landscape architects, nursery owners, and propagators.

   I’ve been on the panel a dozen years now, and I can tell you a lot of thought and input goes into the selections. More nominees get rejected than selected. Even one significant drawback can be enough to derail a plant.

   Sometimes we pick a whole species, if the straight species is a superior performer or if multiple varieties of a species are all pretty good.

   Other times, a particular variety is singled out as a Gold Medal-winner.

   PHS just announced its new set of seven winners for 2021 – two trees, a flowering shrub, an evergreen groundcover, and three perennial flowers.

   Those and all of the Gold Medal winners over the years are posted on a newly interactive PHS website that lets you zero in on best plants by their attributes, see images, and read profiles of each winner, including key stats like bloom times, light needs, and mature sizes.

   The new site also lets you sort plants by the year they won or by particular traits you’re looking for, such as deer resistance, attractiveness to pollinators, and whether they’re native plants.

   All of that is posted on the Best Plants for Your Garden section of the PHS website.

   I’ve also grouped all of the winners since 1988 in a category-by-category listing under the George’s Handy List section of my website.

   Here are the 2021 Gold Medal plants:

Redbud ‘Appalachian Red’

   This is my favorite redbud. The vibrant deep-pink blooms really jump when this small native tree flowers in early spring even before the leaves come out.

   Like all redbuds, ‘Appalachian Red’ does best as an under-story tree in “woodsy” well drained soil out of direct afternoon sun. It grows about 20 feet tall and wide in 20-25 years.

London plane tree Exclamation! (‘Morton Circle’)

   This is a cultivar of a large shade tree similar to sycamore – big leaves and bark that peels over time to reveal a white, smooth skin.

   It’s a fast-grower that can reach 55 to 65 feet tall and 40 to 50 feet wide and is tolerant of and resistant to most abuses. Best in full sun.

Hydrangea Bobo intertwines with the flowers of red petunias.

Dwarf panicle hydrangea Bobo

   Many compact and heavier-blooming versions of the old-fashioned “PeeGee” hydrangea have come along in recent years, and this is one of the showiest.

   Bobo produces large, cone-shaped, white flowers in July that take on shades of pink and then rust as the season progresses. Plants grow a stocky four to five feet tall and wide in full sun or light shade.

Sweet box ‘Fragrant Valley’

   Little known even though it’s one of the most fragrant landscape plants on the market, this plant is a glossy, broad-leafed evergreen with a somewhat boxwood-like appearance and a trailing habit.

   The small white flowers come out in early spring. ‘Fragrant Valley’ is a particularly sweet-smelling variety. It grows about 18 inches tall and spreads three to four feet, ideally in shade.

Dixie woodfern

   Another winner for the shade is this four-foot-tall green fern that’s native to the southeastern United States.

   It’s a clumping fern with glossy leaves and an upright habit. It’s deer-resistant and grows best in shade or at least out of afternoon sun.

Peony ‘Bartzella’

Peony Bartzella in bloom.

   ‘Bartzella’ is arguably the best of the Itoh hybrid peonies, which are a stately and long-blooming blend of herbaceous and tree-type peonies.

   This one has fist-sized blooms of soft yellow with a pinkish-red throat, and like most of the Itoh peonies, has strong, flop-proof stems to hold the big flowers more upright. Grows about three feet tall and wide in full sun and blooms primarily in June.

Rudbeckia ‘American Gold Rush’

   This new and heavy-blooming introduction could become the standard for black-eyed susans, that native perennial that blooms in summer with golden petals that surround a black central cone.

   ‘American Gold Rush’ not only blooms brilliantly and heavily, but it’s resistant to the septoria leaf-spot disease that’s been plaguing other black-eyed susans lately. It grows two feet tall, ideally in full sun.